Ahhh, I made my morning workout. Redemption is mine!

No issues hopping out of bed and pounding out 4.25 miles on the treadmill, until…I went to get showered up and realized I had forgot to pack regular shoes!

I would have happily rocked sneakers to work, but I had packed skinny jeans, and the combo of tight ankle jeans + running shoes would have looked absolutely insane.

Why, universe? WHY?!

Luckily the drive back home is short and I got to shower in my own bathroom. Nice. I didn’t end up getting to work too late either, so all in all I’d call it a success! Going to try and replicate tomorrow morning.

Have you ever forgotten to pack any key items in your bag?

It’s standard procedure for me to forget something important – socks, pants, makeup – but when I used to work downtown near Ben, he’d always bring me my rogue item on his way to work. Now I’m flyin’ solo!

In other news, I made the pasta dish of ALL pasta dishes tonight. Straight from The Pioneer Woman herself – Spaghetti with Artichoke Hearts & Tomatoes!

Halt.

If you think you don’t like artichoke hearts – please keep reading. Trust me when I tell you that they are totally mellow in this dish, and mysteriously blend into the background of the sauce, helping to create what might be my favorite pasta dish ever!!

Ahem, anyways. I cut Ree’s recipe in half and started by melting some butter and olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. 

Next I sautéed green onions in the dynamic duo for a couple minutes,

followed by chopped garlic.

IS THERE ANYTHING BETTER THAN ONIONS AND GARLIC COOKING IN BUTTER!? No. There is not.

Next I added quartered artichoke hearts and petite diced tomatoes into the skillet. 

 

The whole thing simmered for ~8 minutes until the sauce was nice and thick.

Don’t worry if you don’t like chunky sauces either. It’s about to get saucier.

The Pioneer Woman’s recipe calls for adding a load of heavy cream at this point, but I added in a modest amount of 1/2 and 1/2,

and chicken broth.

Then I brought out the big guns – GOAT CHEESE!

Helping to make the sauce even thicker, creamier and luscious…ier…! 

The drained pasta got a dusting of parmesan cheese,

and the thick, creamy sauce. OH BOY!

Ok – it doesn’t look like much, but wowowowowow!

You know how in good Pad Thai dishes, the sauce doesn’t really coat the noodles, rather it seems be in the noodle? This was like that! The sauce thinly coated the noodle, yes, but it also totally soaked it all up.

It was SO fab. I had two plates. It’s true. Make this ok? 

Ps I realize that I “love” 98% of the things I eat. Well…

1. I’m just really not that hard to please. I’ll eat, and most likely enjoy, anything that doesn’t have big chunks of cooked carrots, bell peppers or mushrooms in it.
2. That said, I need to come up with some kind of rating system. From now on I’ll rate my dishes from 1-10, 1 being the worst, 10 being the best. That will give me a better range to more accurately reflect how I feel about a dish – other than “I loved it.”

That said – I give this dish a 10. Totally addicting!

HA!

In other news, I discovered a Type A person’s dream come true today…

Google Calendar

It’s super similar to the iCal in that you can color code your activities, set them to repeat, set reminders, etc.

I started to use a print planner a few months ago, but I actually kind of forgot about it since I kept it in my purse, and stopped using it. On the flip side, I’m on the Internet all. day. long. so having this baby one-click away is key.

Things are getting busy in IGE land with freelance projects, blog stuff to remember and just life in general, so this is going to be a lifesaver!

How do you stay organized?

With that, I am off to enjoy the evening! See ya!

~~~~~

Do you consider yourself a picky eater?

What are your “deal breaker ingredients”? The ones that, if they’re in a dish or recipe, you’ll pass on?

Like I said – it’s a no go on mushrooms, bell pepper and/or cooked carrots. Or cooked celery, for that matter. Or mushy strawberries. I can’t do textures!